SS Ellengowan was a schooner rigged, single screw steamer built by Akers Mekaniske Værksted in Christiania (Oslo) Norway, under her original name, Nøkken. The vessel was powered by sail and a vertical direct acting steam engine. Ellengowan sank at its moorings, unmanned, during the night of 27 April 1888 in Port Darwin and was abandoned. 103 years later, in 1991, she was discovered by divers making it the oldest known shipwreck in Darwin Harbour.[1][2]

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Built in 1866 by Akers Mekaniske Værksted in Christiania in Norway, Ellengowan was originally named Nøkken.[3] She was built for Mr D. Hegermann. The vessel was 79 feet (24.08 metres) long, 15 feet (4.57m) wide, had a depth of 8 feet (2.49m) and had a gross register tonnage of 58. She was powered by sail and a vertical direct acting steam engine. Steam was supplied by a round "scotch" type boiler.

Hegermann used the Nøkken as a private yacht until it was sold to the London Missionary Society (LMS) in 1874.[2] The Reverend Samuel Macfarlane persuaded Miss Baxter, of Dundee, to donate £3,000 for the steamer, renaming it after her own home "Ellengowan". Macfarlane wanted the Ellengowan for missionary work in New Guinea. Departing from Somerset, Cape York Peninsula, the work began with a trip to Anuapata (Port Moresby) in November 1874, to establish the first mission in New Guinea. W. G. Lawes, a missionary with LMS, his wife and the Reverend A.W. Murray travelled on this first trip. Lawes later became the first European missionary to take-up residence in Port Morseby.[4]

Macfarlane then organised an expedition to find the mainstream of the Fly River, a major waterway in New Guinea, to determine if suitable land was available up-river to establish further missions. Ellengowan steamed for about 103 kilometres up a river, but it was not the Fly. Macfarlane named this river the Baxter River (also called Mai-Kassa River), after Miss Baxter. Upon the vessel's return to Somerset, Macfarlane granted leave to James Runcie, captain of the Ellengowan, to take Lawrence Hargrave, an Australian inventor and explorer, Octavius Stone and Kendal Broadbent, both naturalists, in another (unsuccessful) attempt to find the mainstream of the Fly River and to cross the Owen Stanley Mountains. A third expedition to find the Fly River was again mounted by Macfarlane on 3 December 1875. He was accompanied by Luigi M D'Albertis, an Italian naturalist and the police magistrate in Somerset, Lieutenant Cherster. On this occasion, the expedition was successful. The Ellengowan steamed upstream for 150 miles, establishing that the Fly was a large and navigable river. As a result, the Ellengowan was the first European vessel to sail up the Fly and Baxter rivers.[4]

The vessel was purchased from LMS in 1881 by the Palmerston Plantation Company, managed by Mr W. Owston, to undertake supply voyages from Palmerston (Darwin) to the Daly River where a sugar plantation had been established. While operating in this role, she struck a sandbar on the Daly River and sank.[5]

Ellengowan remained a shipwreck for four years until she was eventually raised in 1885 by Charles Stuart Copeland, who intended to use the vessel to supply camps along the Roper and McArthur Rivers.[5] The vessel's first trip since being raised was a charter from the government to take a customs officer, Alfred Searcy, in search of Macassan perahu along the Northern Territory coast. However, Ellengowan was so poorly repaired after its stay at the bottom of the Daly River, that upon its return to Port Darwin she was pronounced unseaworthy.

Copeland had mortgaged the Ellengowan to Herbert H. Adcock and Richard De la Poer Beresford, who then used her as a quarantine hulk for Chinese passengers from Hong Kong to make up the 21 days port before being allowed to land. Being in such poor condition, the Ellengowan sank at its mooring off Channel Island, unmanned, during the night of 27 April 1888 and was abandoned.[2]

The Ellengowan shipwreck was discovered in 1991 by local scuba divers following the assistance of historical research conducted by Margaret Clinch.[4] The shipwreck's discovery and identity was later verified by archaeologists from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in 1994, making it the oldest known shipwreck in Darwin Harbour and the only known Norwegian built iron steamer in Australian waters.[1] The shipwreck lies at a depth of approximately 14 metres, in the channel between Wickham Point and Channel Island, in Darwin Harbour's middle arm. The wreck is the largest feature to appear on a depth sounder in the area, standing about 3 metres off the harbour floor. Her exact location is given at: 12°32'28"S, 130°52'08"E.[6] The Ellengowan is a protected shipwreck under the Northern Territory Conservation Act 1991. Visitors to the site are required not to disturb the site in any way, in an effort to preserve the remaining structure and artefacts for the enjoyment of future generations of site visitors.